Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz nearly stopped over the weekend, with only five commodity vessels transiting on Saturday and none on Sunday, compared with 31 the previous weekend, according to Kpler.
The collapse in traffic followed attacks on three ADNOC-affiliated vessels on Thursday and Friday. Two vessels were attacked while transiting the strait on the evening of 13 August. No injuries were reported and the situation was brought under control.
The ships were identified as the Singapore-flagged product tanker Navig8 Messi and the Liberian-flagged Aframax Tarif. Both suffered minor damage and continued under their own power with their crews safe. A third ADNOC-affiliated vessel was attacked on 14 August. It was identified as the Liberian-registered bulk carrier Al Watan, owned by ADNOC Logistics & Services. Its crew was safe after the hull was struck by an unknown projectile.
Saturday’s traffic included an empty VLCC with its AIS switched off and an Indian-flagged very large gas carrier using the Iranian route. A small tanker carrying Iranian fuel oil exited the Gulf. Some ships may have crossed without being captured in the figures because their AIS transponders were switched off.
Before the disruption, more than 130 ships a day crossed the Strait of Hormuz, which handled about a fifth of global crude oil and LNG shipments.